Dedham Lodge, Prestbury - any information?

[dudhads]

Hi,

Doing some digging around my family tree, and the address of Dedham Lodge, High Street, Prestbury, Gloucestershire keeps coming up as their residence during the mid 1800s. The property appears to have been owned at that time by a single individual, Major Baines.
This seems to be quite a substantial property as many of my ancestors lived there as a family at the same time, but I don't think it was a hostel or work house (as it's not mentioned under the Poor Law or workhouse listings that I've managed to find) and they weren't listed in the census as servants, so what kind of property was it?

Would be grateful if anyone could shed any light on this mysterious address

Steve

[ShaunJ]

Hi Steve and welcome to Rootschat.

May we know the family name of your ancestors who lived there?

[avm228]

Welcome from me too

Dedham Lodge (South Side High St, Prestbury) was occupied in 1861 by James Banks West (53, unmarried, Com Royal Navy half pay, born Marylebone) and his servants Mary Wood and Esther Smith.

Census ref for 1861 is RG 9/1795/9/11.

Are any of them yours?

[ShaunJ]

1851 it was Thomas V Banner, a retired lawyer, his wife, a visitor Julia Bird and two servants Martha Fletcher and Mary Mills.

The property is not identified as Dedham Lodge in the 1851 census but there's a June 1852 newspaper ad in which T V Banner is named as the late occupant.

[avm228]

Major Baines may have been Thomas Josephus Baines, listed at Dedham Lodge in an 1834 electoral roll.

Major Baines was "of the 86th Regiment, and of Dedham Lodge, Prestbury" when his only daughter Mary Frances married John Francis Bouchette at Buttevant (Ireland) in 1830.

However, an 1830 Pigot's Directory lists a Wm Wilson at Dedham Lodge, so it may have been let.

Thomas Josephus Baines appears to have been born abt 1784.  He died in 1840 according to this record:  www.willcalendars.nationalarchives.ie/search/cwa/details.jsp?id=1639373945

[ShaunJ]

Major Thomas Josephus Baines died in Jamaica in February 1840. Dedham Lodge was sold by auction in 1842 along with another house (Clevelands) that he owned in Prestbury.

[ShaunJ]

Death announcement re Major Baines  https://goo.gl/iFQtsj

[dudhads]

Well, I'm already impressed by the response times!

Apologies for the original time frame. I was mistaken, bit of a senior moment . The family were called Stevens, so my current assumption is that they were renting it from about 1880-1905. So Major Baines had already sold up by then, and someone else was their landlord.

Many thanks for the information though, useful background

[avm228]

The family were called Stevens, so my current assumption is that they were renting it from about 1880-1905.

Dedham Lodge was marked as uninhabited in the 1881 census: RG11/2567/18/4.

The three households enumerated immediately after it on the High St were as follows:

Edwin Palmer & his wife Mary
William Bendrick & family
Charles Stevens & family (are these yours)?

What source(s) do you have showing the Stevens at Dedham Lodge itself?